Expertise

American political institutions and development, Congress, political parties, lawmaking, separation-of-powers, political economy

Bio

Jeffery A. Jenkins is Provost Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law, Judith & John Bedrosian Chair of Governance and the Public Enterprise, Director of the Bedrosian Center, and Director of the Political Institutions and Political Economy (PIPE) Collaborative. He previously held tenure-stream positions at the University of Virginia, Northwestern University, and Michigan State University.

His research interests include American Political Institutions and Development (with a special emphasis on Congress and political parties), lawmaking, separation-of-powers, and political economy. Much of his work takes a positive political theory (or rational choice) approach, and examines how political actors pursue their interests while being constrained by formal and informal institutional arrangements. His current work involves papers on the ideological content of federal lawmaking in the post-war era and book projects on how civil rights policy has been dealt with in Congress over time and how the Republican Party evolved in the South after the Civil War.

Dr. Jenkins holds a PhD in political science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MS in mathematical methods for the social sciences from Northwestern University. He has been a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University and Michigan State University.

He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Politics.

Jenkins, J. A., & Stewart, III, C., Fighting for the Speakership: The House and the Rise of Party Government; Princeton University Press. Series: Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, Comparative, and International Perspectives. Series Editors: Ira Katznelson, Martin Shefter, and Theda Skocpol. Named as one of Choice’s Editors’ Picks for 2013; 2013.